Denver Nuggets / NBA

Denver Nuggets lose to Golden State Warriors in final seconds

Nuggets' JaVale McGee (34) shoots between Golden State Warriors' David Lee, right, and Klay Thompson in the first half in Oakland, Calif. (Marcio Jose Sanchez, The Associated Press)

OAKLAND, calif. — The pass was so dreadfully errant and underthrown, well, it brought back memories of Tim Tebow.

Andre Miller's side inbounds heave — with 2.1 seconds left in Thursday night's game, and Denver down one to Golden State — couldn't connect with a curling, backside-of-the-defense Ty Lawson, and the ball ricocheted out of bounds. Denver had one last gasp, and it provided a last gasp. With 0.5 seconds left Andre Iguodala launched a 3-pointer — good! — but after review, it was shown that he released the shot after the buzzer — no good! — and the Warriors won, 106-105.

"(The Miller pass) was over the top of the defense. Ty had the open side to shoot a jumper or go to the rim, and it did come open, but the pass was somewhat slow and didn't get there," Nuggets coach George Karl said.

It was a case of deja boo. The Nuggets blew a 16-point, third-quarter lead for the second consecutive game, also on the road, and Denver couldn't convert in the final ticks of a one-possession game.

"As I told the team, we're in a stage in the season where we've gotten better the last two games, but the losses are tough to handle," said Karl, whose team is 8-8 and plays at the Lakers on Friday. "We've got to respect that on the road you must play a little bit smarter than we play. We've blown leads and our personality changes.

"We're attacking, playing our type of basketball, and that's how we got the lead — making 3s when they collapsed on us. But (later on) we were shooting a lot of one-on-one 3s, isolation 3s, which is not how we got the lead. We changed our personality, and it really disappointed me. We did the same thing (Monday night) in Utah."

As for Iguodala, he credited Golden State's Klay Thompson for some smart defense on the final shot. Iguodala received the pass, with 0.5 ticks left, on the left wing, but "(Thompson) jumped right before I caught it and made me wait a split-second," said Iguodala, who finished with 22 points. "I knew there was a chance it was (good), but a chance it wasn't."

Asked about the final half-second, Karl said, "If I put a stopwatch on it, it seemed like the clock started early for me, but it's nothing to argue about. The camera shows it's in his hand."

There are nights that are just quirky. Entering Thursday, the Nuggets were fifth-worst in league in 3-point shooting. And the Warriors, yep, were fifth-best in defending the 3. But Denver finished 10-for-21 (47.6 percent). For the season, the Nuggets had shot just 31.8 percent, averaging only six made 3s a game.

But it's down the stretch when it matters. The Nuggets were just 1-for-5 from 3-point range in the fourth quarter.

And so, the Warriors (9-6) had finally, actually beaten the Nuggets, 106-105, in the third meeting of the teams this month.

It was airtight late. After forcing a missed shot on the other end, Iguodala was fouled shooting a 3-point shot with 3.4 seconds left and Denver down 106-103. The fans booed during his shots, thinking it wasn't a clear shooting attempt when he was fouled.

Make.

Make.

Miss.

But the rebound went off a Warriors' hand, and Denver had the ball with 2.1 seconds left, giving Denver (8-8) another chance.

In the previous game, Utah big man Al Jefferson scored 28 points, establishing himself in the low post with frightening prominence and dominance. Well, on Thursday, it was David Lee, Golden State's powerful power forward, who finished with a game-high 31 points, nine rebounds and six assists.

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